What Amy Made Next …

Tag: choosing a sewing machine

Today I thought I would introduce you to someone special – my new toy – Serge! Serge is a Toyota SLR4D Overlocker (serger) and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have been gifted it for my birthday by the lovely PB! Here’s a shot of me when I’d just opened the box – you can see that I was one happy lady!

One happy lady!

I’d been considering purchasing an overlocker for the last few months. With making pretty much all of my clothes now, it seemed like a sound investment, and you can’t argue with the professional finish it gives to seams. However, I didn’t really feel justified in biting the bullet, what with saving up for our new house, so I really did feel extra lucky to receive one as a gift. I’d been looking at a couple of models, however the ones with the best reviews in my price range had really only been the Toyota and the ever popular Brother 1034D. PB had cheekily asked me one night to show him what I was looking at (little did I know he was scoping me out for gifts!) and I happened to see that the Toyota was on flash sale … I still couldn’t justify the price though and spent the next few weeks telling PB what a great purchase it would have been. Little did I know he had sneakily gone and bought it for me!

Serge fresh from the box

Serge and I are still very much getting to know each other. I’d used an overlocker before at my sewing class – and I am so glad I had at least had a few tips to get started. I had heard real horror stories of 3 hours + to learn to thread it so I was quite worried. Although mine had come pre-threaded, something had gotten tangled, so I had to start from scratch. Although not easy, I would say the threading wasn’t too bad. Maybe 45 minutes for the first go? I learnt one key thing: it’s the order you do the threading that counts.

Lower Looper

Upper Looper

Right Needle

Left Needle

Amazingly this makes all the difference! Feeling triumphant that I had threaded the serger, I thought I’d dive in to a project. This was a huge mistake – I think I picked a bit of a tough fabric with a lot of stretch and I just could not get the tension right. After that I packed Serge away again (not in a huff, honest!) until I had some more time to fiddle with the dials … it is all in the thread tension and understanding which thread on your fabric comes from which cone of thread. To help me with this, I found some great online resources which I wanted to share with you:

Sew Quick and Easy’s Youtube video on Basic Serging:Tips and Tricks is also great. All I can say is I wish I’d listened to Susan and spent time making a fabric chart of all my thread tensions. It would have saved me lots of trouble!

Serge and I are getting along much better now, although I certainly still don’t feel confident with him. I did some quilting on my beloved Pfaff today and felt so comfortable and at home. I just have to remind myself that once upon a time I used to feel nervous with my sewing machine too! It’s all just a learning curve! This evening I re-threaded Serge in some navy blue thread – I have three Navy projects to work on in the future so it seemed well worth it. Project one involves sweatshirt fabric, project two a low stretch navy woven and project three a crepe georgette. All of them will offer some good opportunities for Serge and I to cement our friendship! I will let you know how it goes!

Serge in Blue

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If you’ve been reading my blog for a bit, you will know that I love fat quarters! I love their prints and how cute they are – the colours and the different patterns. I love the cute animals and the comical ones – basically all the ones you buy when you have no idea what exactly you are going to make with them! I’ve been having a bit of a tidy up of my craft stash of late (trying to make space for my new serger on my tiny Ikea table!) and I realised that I really do need to do something about my fat quarter stash!

I saw a little Ra Ra skirt recently to purchase for soon-to-be-here niece and thought they are a great choice for new babies, but you had to be able to sew them yourself in some cute prints. Luckily this amazing free pattern and tutorial for a reversible baby skirt crossed my path and answered my baby ra-ra-skirt and fat quarter stash dreams. I loved how simple it is and the different effects you can get by combining prints and decided I had to give it a go!

While tidying out my stash, I picked out these two cute prints along with some contrast bias binding I had been gifted and had waited to find the right project for. This project seemed just the one!

I purchased the fat quarters during Tschibo craft week and have been super positively surprised by the quality of the cotton. I love the contrasting prints! So perfect for a newborn baby girl gift! Hearts and polka dots, what’s not to love?

This pattern is ridiculously simple – I didn’t even print the free pattern as it was a bit of a spontaneous make this evening, so I just improvised by drawing round a plate to get a good curve on the waist. You pin the two donuts of fabric right sides together and stitch the inner circle and you are already on your way to skirt cuteness!

After that you turn them the right way out and sew around the circle again to create a channel for the elastic. Once the elastic is in, all you have left to do is bind. The binding is a little fiddly and seems to go on forever (but aren’t all circle skirt hems that way?!) However, it was good practice for me on using bias tape, so that was good. I was proud that I just worked out by myself how to attach it.

Overall I am delighted with my finished make. There is nothing on it I would change for once! I can’t believe it only took me an hour from start to finish – such a great project for when you have an itch to stitch but you don’t want to start anything major. Now I am ready to make a whole package of these to gift to friends and relatives. I can picture a matching set of three in a little gift box tied with a cute ribbon. What do you think? What a great way to use a fat quarter!

Oh also, I forgot to mention the best bit, the skirt is reversible! Two skirts for the price of one!

Unfortunately I don’t have a baby to help me model this skirt in all its cuteness, so I called in a friend to help …. meet Dave, our friendly household Minion!

Dave and I wish you a great rest of the week filled with stitching and crafting!

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I’m not quite sure how it happened, but I woke up this morning suddenly aware that winter is coming! This year I am planning on doing a couple of handmade gifts for Christmas, as well as sewing much more of my winter wardrobe, and I’ve realised that I’m going to need to get a wriggle on and do some planning! Looking back at my Autumn Sewing Plans post, I’ve managed to make quite a few of the things I was planning for, as well as a lot of extras I didn’t plan for! My particular favourites have been the Tilly and the Buttons Bettine Dress (of which I have made many) as well as the Tilly and the Buttons Coco. However, I am yet to make Mathilde or the ByHandLondon Charlotte Skirt, both of which are now rolling on over in to my winter sewing agenda!

In addition to those, I have added the following to my sewing agenda for the next few weeks:

The Colette Patterns Wren Dress has been taking the sewing community by storm since its release a couple of weeks back. I loved making the Colette Patterns Moneta, so I have high hopes for the Wren Dress. It’s a style which I think will be very flattering on my figure if I can get the fit right, so I am planning to whip one up in one of the jersey fabrics that I bought at Stoffmarktholland. I think maybe a jewel tone purple could be great for a Christmas dress with a nice blingy necklace?!

The McCall’s 6886 dress is also on my list – it looks like a great staple basic to make for work! I’ve seen a couple of people on Instagram post great photos of these – the shape of the pattern looks really versatile for many different fabric colours. The sleeveless version might also make a great dress for my Cambodian holiday!

As if that wasn’t enough, I couldn’t help but be tempted by Sew Magazine’s Chris Moose.

How cute does he look? I’ve got to find time to squeeze him in!

So that’s going to be me busy stitching for the next few weeks! I’m also going to be learning to use my new overlocker which the PB bought me for my birthday (and the best ever boyfriend award goes to …. *drum roll*), so watch out for more news on that soon as I learn to thread the blighter! Fingers crossed it’s not as scary as people would have you believe! Wish me luck!

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Back at the beginning of the summer a friend of mine brought these two gorgeous flannel charm packs back from America for me. The blue and yellow pack became a comfy padded baby quilt for my brother and sister-in-law. When I later found out that their baby was going to be a girl, I couldn’t help but decide I had to make something with the pink one for them too!

As the flannel charm packs are super soft, I thought I’d make a patchwork cosy comforter for the baby. The front is a normal square patchwork and the back is some lovely white fleece. Due to the pre-cut charms, the top came together really quickly and easily. I then basted it together with the fleece and “quilted” diagonal half square triangles through both layers to give a nice pattern on the back of the white fleece. I then bound the blanket with some “bias binding strips” of fleece. On reflection, this was a really bad idea, as the fleece did not make nice mitred corners at all due to being much too thick, but hey, you live and learn! I hand sewed the binding down to the back of the quilt and I was so pleased, my hand sewing is coming on a treat! Here’s the finished blanket! Apologies about the photos – it’s so tough to get good photos with less and less daylight every day!

I also decided that it wouldn’t be fair if all of my friends’ babies received an Ernest the Elephant and my own niece didn’t, so I set about making one of those too. I used some chambray scraps from my Bettine Dress for the body of the elephant. I can’t believe that the 2m of chambray I bought have now made a dress, espadrilles and an elephant and I still have some left! I love making things with scraps as I really hate waste! I also had a fat quarter of faux-suede in brown in my stash that I got free with a sewing magazine, and thought that a couple of pieces of that would make lovely snuggle soft ears. I love the Birch Fabrics free template for this pattern – it’s such a nice shape and the little knotted tail is such a cute detail! So here he is – my finished elephant! The jury is out as to whether he should be known as Edna or Egbert – I guess in the end we will let our niece decide when she’s here!

Edna-Egbert was the first project where I got to use one of my new Make Amy Make labels! I loved being able to add a little label – it makes it feel more finished somehow!

Both gifts went off in the post to England and are now in the nursery waiting for our arrival. Not long to go! How about you – do you like making gifts for friends and relatives? Have you made anything out of scraps recently that you’re proud of?

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In about six weeks, I am heading off to Cambodia in South East Asia for my holiday. Holidays have felt a bit of a long time coming this year, but it’s great to be excited and still have a trip to look forward to in November. As a result, my sewing is going to get distinctly summery around here for the next few weeks, as I try and pull together my first me made holiday wardrobe. Having been to Cambodia before, I’ve learnt that function is more important than fashion, so I will be focusing on some nice breezy T-shirts, as well as some cool and comfy trousers and maybe some kind of pull on dress for the pool/beach. As most of my Cambodian outfits feature denim shorts, I thought a great option would be to make some super fun and comfortable espadrilles to pair with them!

So many fabric options …

You can buy the pattern and espadrille soles direct from Prym or any number of stockists in the UK, America and Germany. I was quite surprised to discover that they really aren’t difficult to get hold of. The box includes one pair of soles and a paper pattern. The pattern does not include seam allowances so you need to remember to add them on! (I will still never understand why pattern companies do this, ho hum). You then just need to pick out a fabric for your espadrilles and the fun can begin. Choosing the fabric was quite difficult for me – there were so many options I could have used in my stash and espadrilles are a great scrap buster project. In the end I settled for some left over scraps from my Chambray Bettine and a cute white and blue floral fat quarter as contrast which has been hanging around waiting for the right project for a while. Really though you could make these in practically any fabric and they would look great – you can really let your creativity run wild. I also decided to interface my fabric pieces, just to give the shoes more shape and stability.

After cutting and sewing the fabric pieces together with a sewing machine, you just turn them out and pin them on the shoe. This can be a bit fiddly, but is fine once you get going. You need to pin at an angle so that the pins just glide in to the sole and don’t pierce the rubber bottom.

Espadrille Porcupine

As you can see from the photo, my initial plan was to go fully denim. I had a last minute change of heart though and decided to go all out with the contrast on the outside. What’s the point of making your own shoes if you can’t be a bit wild right?! Once everything is pinned in place, it’s just a case of sewing the cotton uppers to the soles. You do this using a blanket stitch, which is probably the trickiest bit to get right. Once you get going though, it’s really easy. I found this YouTube video from The Makery really really useful. The video guides you through the whole process of making the espadrilles from start to finish and has some really handy hints for hiding the knots in the soles, changing threads, and keeping your tension right in blanket stitch. If you plan to make your own espadrilles, don’t start without watching the video first!

So here they are – the finished espadrilles!

I’m really pleased with them. I decided to use quite a chunky white thread and make a bit of a feature of the stitching and I really like the effect. The jury is out and there are many opinions on how to finish the side stitching of the uppers. I just went with running stitch, as per the Makery Video, but blanket stitch is also an option!

Here’s the finished product on my feet! I love wearing them, they are surprisingly comfortable. I can’t wait to wear them in Cambodia! I have a sneaking feeling next spring I might be making another pair of these – it’s like wearing your slippers outside! All in all a great make and something a bit different! A good opportunity to practice my normally terrible hand sewing too!

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Back at the end of August, I decided to take the plunge with taking my sewing skills to the next level and signed myself up for a dressmaking course. For those of you who don’t stop by the blog often, up until now I have been completely self (youtube and blog) taught and have been surprisingly pleased with how much you can learn if you just give stuff a go. However, I thought it would be good to take the opportunity to see how the professionals do it, and also to make sure I am not picking up too many bad habits along the way. For me, the main objective was to learn more about fitting. I have had some success at making clothes, but have always steered clear of things with a fitted bodice due to my bust size. As a result, I decided to take on the Collette patterns Moneta dress so that I could learn some more about bodice fitting. So, now that class is over, I wanted to take some time to reflect – here’s a quick retrospective!

Here are some things that I loved about my sewing class:

I did indeed learn how to do better bodice fitting and have a finished make that I am delighted with and super proud of (watch out for a Moneta post soon when I manage to get some photos taken in daylight!)

I met some really nice people who share a love for what I do

I got to see what projects other people are tackling, which gave me the confidence to give some different styles a go. One lady was making a trench coat, and another a winter coat out of cashmere – this gave me something to aspire to!

Sewing in a sewing shop is great because you never have to worry about not having everything you need!

Pure uninterrupted sewing time

Cutting on the big sewing table – how much difference it makes to your back and it makes it so much easier to cut and adjust a pattern accurately when you don’t have to keep shifting fabric around

Learning some new techniques

Discovering that once you know some things about sewing, it’s ok to not always follow the pattern exactly – sometimes you might know a better way to do something!

Here are some of the things I didn’t love about sewing class:

The cost. Sewing in a sewing shop with a “tab” system where you are only allowed to use materials from the shop is perilously dangerous for your bank account. Things can add up quite easily! Thinking back and realising that I could have bought the overlock machine I’ve been coveting for what I’ve spent between the course fee and materials was a bit sobering.

Transporting my sewing machine and all my stuff to class on the train. I did not buy my Pfaff with transport in mind and she is HEAVY.

That said, much of that doesn’t have much to do with the course itself, and has much more to do with personal preference. I really do feel like I learnt a lot, which I think justifies the expense and the carrying and the late evenings. Now, I am going to share my new found wisdom with you (I’m sure you all probably knew these things already, but I’m excited!)

The end of a tape measure has that little gold tab on it, not just to help you find the right end, but for you to use as a little ruler when you are making fabric markings with chalk/a dressmaker’s pencil! (I’m not sure why, but this particular fact seems to have excited me!)

My bust fitting issues can sometimes be fitted with some well-placed bust darts, and now I know where and how to add them.

Sometimes it is more important to be able to iron a seam allowance open than it is to use an overlocker (for example when adding side seam pockets)

I learnt that if a garment doesn’t look quite right once it is finished, it is worth going back and making that little extra adjustment – it can make the difference between wearing a garment and not wearing a garment

I can now draft a neckline facing all by myself (my sewing teacher did not approve of “just hemming the raw edges of the neckline because that’s what it says in the pattern”

I now know how to add seam allowances precisely to a pattern which does not include them

I now know how to transfer pattern markings using thread markers

I now know you should always snip the centre of your pieces with a little mark – it might help you later

Always write down the adjustments you made on a slip of paper in the pattern envelope so you remember them next time

I also now know how to use the finished garment measurements on a pattern packet to stop me sewing up something that won’t fit me in the end (I’m looking at you chubby bingo wings and sleeve pattern pieces which are always too tight once sewn up!)

So all in all I think I learned a lot which will help me when sewing in the future, and I’m glad I went. I think I’m going to take a break from the evening classes for a while and maybe the next time I go to a class look for something on the weekend. This will eliminate much of my late evening, sewing machine carrying grumpiness. It would be so lovely to make some sewing friends here in Frankfurt, I think it’s worth it for that alone! So that’s my sewing class retrospective wrapped up – more on the actual garment and sewing process next time! How about you, have you visited a sewing class? Do you love sewing in the comfort of your own home, or getting out and about?

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After an unsuccessful trip to the high street this afternoon (somehow since I have been sewing my own clothes, I never want to buy any clothes on the high street any more!) I popped in to Karstadt to have a peruse. I came across something I’d never seen before – a medium sized bag of Nappa leather scraps, for the bargain price of EUR 5,95. I really love leather, its soft and supple feeling and the way it smells. I think it’s my years and years of childhood spent around horses, cleaning and caring for leather and using it in the day today which has given me a real appreciation for it. I also appreciate that it is not the most animal friendly of materials – which for me makes it even more important to use every last scrap! So anyway, ode to leather over, check out what I got in my scrap bag!

Scrap Leather Treasure!

I love the variety of colours and the fact that some of it is super soft and supple which is great for purses and elbow patches, where other pieces are more robust which will be good for things like notebook covers, brooches and appliqué. The majority of the pieces are of a really good size, so I think I’m going to be able to use most of it. The piece that attracted me most to buy the scrap bag was that big black piece at the front. If I’d have been on the high street and seen a purse or bag made of that I would have been all over it! As a result, I decided that a super soft coin and credit card purse would have to be my first leather make.

I cut out two squares from the black scraps, measuring 6 1/2 ” x 4 1/2″. I also chose this cool grey geometric print fat quarter from my stash for the lining, which I also cut at 6 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ and a nice chunky gold 6″ zipper in the hope of adding a bit of glam!

Could this be a match made in heaven?

My first step was to stitch in one of my super cool new Make Amy Make labels to the lining. I’m now slightly wishing that I’d gotten them printed black text on white labels, for makes just like this, but at the time the blue seemed cool! You live and learn! After testing out the leather needle I’d inserted in my machine on a tiny left over scrap, I braved attaching the leather and lining to the zipper using Debby from Sew Sew Easy’sCosmetic Bag tutorial as a reminder! I was super pleased with the zip insertion at this point and was surprisingly pleased with how my machine was coping with sewing on leather.

So far so good …

At this point I was really pleased with my choice of zipper as well! I think the chunky bling adds a little something!

Zipper goodness!

I then proceeded to top stitch along the leather to hold the lining in place. Throughout the zip insertion process I was helped along considerably by my favourite little helpers – wonder clips! As leather doesn’t like to be pinned (those nasty pins leave a mark which will stay forever!) these little clips were really handy for keeping the zipper in place and “pinning” wrong sides together etc.

I only really ran in to trouble at the point where I needed to sew from the lining up and over the zipper tapes. My machine did not like having to deal with sewing leather plus the zipper tapes, leather seam allowance from the zip insertion and lining fabric all at once. The feed dogs also struggled throughout and I’m thinking I should maybe have adjusted my presser foot pressure (I should really learn how and when to do that!) Together, we found a way though, and we got there in the end!

Here’s the finished product being modelled by a friend of mine … can you tell I like Dachshunds?!

The corners are a little squiffy and the zipper sure ain’t perfect where I sewed those zipper tapes in, but all in all I am so happy with my first foray in to sewing with leather! When I think that I’ve now got a completely useable real leather purse for a total cost of about 3 euros (the majority of which is the zipper), I feel pretty pleased with myself! I will definitely be using this one in my handbag come Monday morning!

Now I just need to think what else I could do with my leather scraps … I’ve been doing some research and have come up with this little list:

So yeah – lots of things to practice my leather sewing skills on with these scraps! Maybe one day I will be brave enough to make a proper bag – a big tote seems a good place to start! Have any of you ever sewn with leather? Any top tips or project ideas for me?

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Back in August I spotted the McCall’s M6992 on Just Jax’s blog. She had made a rather fetching elephant print version, and I wrote down the pattern number in my notebook for something to have a look at later. Then I sort of forgot all about it until the weather started to get chilly and autumnal and I realised that I would love a raglan sleeve sweater. There’s been lot of noise recently about the Lane Raglan, but the McCall’s M6992 was available on Amazon to purchase right here in Germany at a very reasonable price and with free delivery so I decided it would be just the ticket. Thanks Mode-Schnitte.de!

When I went fabric shopping for this top, I sort of decided I would let the fabric inspire me. This is a great pattern for being able to use an exciting print, so I settled on this really bright floral. I’m not normally a floral person, but I have to say since I have been sewing my own wardrobe, the amount of exciting prints and colours in my wardrobe has increased ten fold! I just feel so much more adventurous than when I go shopping on the high street – do any of you find that?! I wanted to make view B, the contrast sleeve version, so I paired the bright floral with a lovely black thick jersey knit that has a sort of shine to it. What is extra exciting about this pattern is it only requires 1.5m of fabric, so it’s purse friendly too!

Overall I was delighted with the finished garment. This has to have been one of my favourite garments to sew and I was really pleased with the finish and fit. I cut a size 16, which was the largest size my pattern packet had to offer (I believe you can also buy a separate packet with larger sizes). As it was the largest size, I did something I never do and just cut the pattern right out of the tissue *gasp*. No tracing here! The sizing chart on the pattern packet wasn’t that helpful – I went from the bust measurement and knew after that I was winging it. None of my other measurements seemed to correspond well to any of the measurements on the packet, so I thought I’d just make up the largest size and take in as necessary. In the end, I was so delighted with the fit that next time I wouldn’t make any adjustments at all. This is one of those rare patterns that I made straight out of the packet, no adjustments and the sweater fits me perfectly and I love it just as it is!

I love it so much I’ve worn it twice already since I made it. We took a little road trip to Mainz to get me out and about again post surgery now I am feeling better and it was so sunny, I thought it would be a great time to wear bright florals! We found this beautiful church!

Which we decided would be a good photo opportunity for the jumper!

I plan to make a second one of these using the same black jersey for the sleeves, with a black lace layered over black jersey for the body. I am thinking it will be great for work in the winter – smart and warm! Funnily enough I am already on my way to starting the second one as I accidentally made two left sleeves for the floral version (yep – it’s hard to tell the right side from the wrong side of the fabric on a black jersey!) I’d already attached the cuff and everything, so that’s one sleeve down, one sleeve to go on version two! It would be a shame to waste it! I imagine this is the first of many McCall’s M6992 – it’s so versatile with so many different possible variations – I’m already imagining a whole wardrobe of them. It could do everything from Christmas jumper to light weight long-sleeve T-shirt and it’s great from a construction point too! This is certainly a pattern I would recommend purchasing!

How about you – do any of you have any pattern favourites? I’d love to hear all about them!

Psst! In case you haven’t entered yet – I am giving away a WHOLE BOX of vintage patterns here! Leave a comment on this post by midnight tonight and the box could be yours!

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Today is the last day of September, which is both a little bit scary that this year has flown by so fast, but also exciting as one of my favourite events is coming up super soon! 4 times per year, the Dutch Fabric Market (Stoffmarktholland) comes to Frankfurt for one day of stash expansion crafty joy! I am extra excited this time around as I unfortunately missed the market’s last visit as I was away on holiday … so I have waited a whole six months for this one! As we don’t have a huge selection of places to go fabric shopping in Frankfurt, it’s great to just have a splurge at very reasonable prices and to feel the lovely crafty vibe of all the other excited shoppers.

Thou shalt always write a shopping list in advance, or thou will be mighty overwhelmed

So, heeding these two important commandments, my Ikea bags are at the ready, and today, I set about writing my shopping list. To create my shopping list, I decided to delve back through all of my scribbles and notes and have a look at what patterns I still plan to buy in the near future and which projects I would like to tackle next. I came up with the following:

Phew – and that’s the consolidated list! I definitely won’t end up buying something for all of those, but it’s just good to keep in mind what you want to make so that the fabric has some sort of purpose! As you can see, my sewing is looking pretty jersey heavy right now, so I may also look out for some more jersey sewing machine needles.

As a result my shopping list looks something like this:

Nice black jersey knit

Soft t-shirt jersey in stripes

Sweatshirt fabric (one for the Burda, one for the track pants, one for the McCalls)

Felted wool

Plain jersey in jewel colours for Moneta

Thick striped jersey for Coco

Cute print fabric for PJ trousers

Funky Buttons

Backing fabric for my Mum’s Quilt

Thread rolls

What I am not allowed to buy is zippers or any more fat quarters! I am drowning in them as I can’t resist a cute print or two … I’m sure I’ll end up with a couple and maybe some mystery fabric too! That’s the joy of the fabric market, you never know what you might find!

I can’t wait to show you what I come home with in a couple of weeks … in the meantime there seems to be a few babies on the way around here so I am going to set about sewing an army of Ernest elephants!

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I have to say I am so excited to be able to participate in the Pattern Pyramid Giveaway. A couple of months back, right when I started the blog, I was picked out of the hat by the lovely Megan of Pigeon Wishes to be the recipient of this amazing pattern box of goodness. I could not believe my luck!

The Pattern Pyramid was originally started by Karen of Did You Make That when she received a box of vintage patterns and decided she wanted to share the love with the sewing community. Since then the box has travelled to Australia, America, New Zealand, Scotland, Canada, England, the Isle of Wight and many other interesting places! It’s now sitting here with me in Frankfurt, Germany and the box is ready to make its way on a new adventure!

Basically, the way the pattern pyramid works is you receive a box of patterns, you get to keep a pattern from the box and you add a pattern in and send it off around the world for the next lucky recipient to do the same! Seeing all these beautiful patterns is such a treat – there are a range of sizes, shapes, decades, styles and just unpacking the box is a joy in itself!

So here is what I added to the box …

I think there are a few treats in there for people! And here is what I took out … The lovely Megan told me that on account of how many she had added, she thought it would be ok for me to take an extra one! It’s just so hard to choose!

I love the shape of this shirt dress – I think it could really work on me! It looks complicated, but I think if I get it right the sleeveless version could be a bit of a summer staple!

This skirt had to come too … I’m a bit unsure on the sizing, it’s probably going to be way too small, but I’m hoping to just add a few inches all over! I love the pockets and the button down front! It’s my incentive to master button holes!

This one won me over on account of the shorts! How amazingly cute are they?! I can’t wait to give them a go!

And I just couldn’t resist trying Anna out … let’s see if she and I get along!

So if you want to get your paws on this pattern box of goodness, what do you need to do?

The rules:

1. You must be committed to passing on the pattern pyramid. So hosting a giveaway, picking a winner randomly and paying for the delivery.

2. Leave a comment in my reply section, with a link to your blog, by midnight on October 3rd 2015.

And that’s it! I’m afraid this one is open to bloggers only (on account of you also needing to host a blog giveaway). Winners will be drawn from a hat! This is a WORLDWIDE giveaway so give it a go! You may be the lucky winner!